


Black Star, White Star

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: The Travel Collection: Drabbles, Snippets, and Supershorts [46]
Category: Babylon 5
Genre: GFY, Mirror Universe, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-31
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-13 13:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/824873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They are the galaxy's worst nightmare. A motley alliance of thieves, liars, drunks and aliens. They are friends to no one but themselves, and whoever's paying them at the moment.</p>
<p>They steal and they fight, they bicker and drink and they all go home to their ship - a lovely present from the Minbari leader of the Rangers in return for one of their more entertaining adventures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Motley Alliance

**Author's Note:**

> A Babylon 5 mirror-verse AU which keeps most of the core crew together. Their individual roles are mostly laid out in the story where this AU first shows up. There are several characters who aren't mentioned - all of whom have roles outside the crew on the ship, and most of whom work at least theoretically within the boundaries of law.

They are the galaxy's worst nightmare. A motley alliance of thieves, liars, drunks and aliens. They are friends to no one but themselves, and whoever's paying them at the moment.

There's their leader, a charismatic, manipulative bastard named Jeff Sinclair, who left Earth Force before they could court martial him for mutiny, among an assortment of lesser charges. They still want his head on a pike.

His second is a brawler named Garibaldi. Sinclair calls him Mike, but no one else calls him anything but Garibaldi. What exactly he's done to merit Earth Force's ire isn't clear, but rumor has it that it involves an Admiral's daughter, two bottles of good whiskey, and a near miss with a priest and a shotgun.

John Sheridan rounds out the ex-military personel, after openly telling off President Clark and accusing him of murdering President Santiago. And opening fire on Earth Force One in an attempt to rid the universe of one of the slimy bastards that can be found all over.

A mercenary crew that's constantly getting injured is in want of a doctor of course, and Steven Franklin fits in pretty well. Lost his liscence to abusing stims, and fled Earth after a massive argument with his father - another Earth Force admiral who'd like Sinclair's head.

After a spectacular brawl on one of Earth's colonies, they picked up a pair of telepaths - Susan Ivanova, who hated the Corps for killing her mother, and Talia Winters who followed Susan without hesitation. No one asks what goes on in thier quarters, especially after a detour into Minbari space to avoid an Earth Force cruiser, and their next addition to the crew.

Marcus Cole is a former Ranger who was foolish enough to challenge a Minbari to den'shaa in defense of the Entil'zha. Neroon is that Minbari, who broke den'shaa because he saw something in Marcus that he didn't expect. Neroon doesn't speak much, and Marcus won't shut up. They moved in with Susan and Talia a week after they showed up, and haven't moved out since.

A job in Centauri space added Londo Molari, his wife Timov, and a rather grumpy Narn named G'Kar to the crew. No one is quite sure how Londo and Timov stay married. Or, for that matter, why Londo and G'Kar seem to get along so well. Alcohol may have a lot to do with the latter, but it certainly doesn't make the former any easier to understand. Especially when it involves G'Kar pouring a very drunk Londo into his quarters late at night, and having crockery heaved at his head.

They steal and they fight, they bicker and drink and they all go home to their ship - a lovely present from the Minbari leader of the Rangers in return for one of their more entertaining adventures. But that is a story for a different time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "dark".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Not Always the Absence of Light](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/951873).


	2. Fuck the Rest

The sharp whistling howl of air hurtling past the open hatch of the ship stopped abruptly as G'Kar and Garibaldi finally wrestled it shut, the two slumping against the inside wall, the sudden silence making both their ears ring. It didn't last long, before Sinclair's voice was on the coms, demanding to know their status and that of the breach.

"We're fine, the idiots who thought they could get on board aren't." Garibaldi didn't move from where he was slumped, listening to the subtle hum of the ship as their flight path changed, heading out of the atmosphere and away from the planet. Just one more place they would have to avoid, though he would grant, they had something of a reason to want the motley crew gone.

There was a chuckle from Sinclair, and then the coms went silent again, because there really wasn't a need for more than that. So very different from Earth Force, from what they might have been if Sinclair hadn't torpedoed his career to get Garibaldi out of trouble.

Garibaldi snorts at his own slightly maudlin thoughts. They couldn't change the past now, and he doubts any of them really want to. They have a ship, they have each other, and they have the whole damned galaxy to roam. Fuck humanity - and the Centauri - anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "wind".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Sky-Song](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1471349).


	3. Every Bad Love Poem

"How is it you can recite every bad love poem known to the universe, and yet you can't keep track of where your own quarters are?" G'Kar has one hand gripping the back of Londo's coat to keep the Centauri upright as he steers Londo through the corridor.

"I did not forget where they are, G'Kar. However, they are unfortunately occupied by that shrieking harridan I made the mistake of marrying." Londo gesticulates as he speaks, nearly hitting G'Kar in the face despite the distance he tries to keep between him and Londo. After all the time he's known the irritating Centauri, G'Kar still isn't sure if it's accidental or deliberate. Particularly when Londo tries to twist around to glare at him a moment later, stumbling a bit when G'Kar won't let him. "Must you insist on escorting me to my doom, rather than allowing me a peaceful night in the company of others?"

"Since no one else appears to have had their quarters invaded by a drunk Centauri, it appears I must." G'Kar smiles, though the expression is anything but pleasant. It only makes Londo snort, though, instead of shift away like it does just about anyone else.

"You leave the door unlocked; it is practically an invitation!" Londo sounds entirely too pleased with his logic, and G'Kar lets out a long-suffering sigh.

"The last time I locked the door, Mr. Garibaldi threatened to put you out an airlock for serenading him - and everyone else, I must remind you - with an off-key selection of Centauri love-songs." Although there are days when he almost thinks it would be a mercy to allow Garibaldi to carry through on that threat, G'Kar is far more amused by keeping Londo alive.

"Mr. Garibaldi should be grateful it was not Timov who was singing." Londo digs in his heels again, trying to continue down the corridor this time, as G'Kar keys open the door to Londo and Timov's quarters.

"And just where have you been?" Timov is waiting - as expected - in the middle of the main room, glaring at Londo as G'Kar bodily hauls him into the room, and shoves him toward Timov with what he'll admit to himself is perhaps an inappropriate amount of glee before leaving the two for the evening.

Perhaps now he can safely lock his door, and have a peaceful night's sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "Missing".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [All of a Question](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1680257).


	4. Stay For Dessert

"Roses." Susan looks over at Talia, and she shrugs, shaking her head. She didn't tell Marcus about Susan's love of roses.

_I promise, love._

Telepaths could lie, mind-to-mind, but it's harder than lying aloud, and neither Talia nor Susan had ever been inclined to lie to each other. Perhaps a danger when they'd been in Psi Corps, with Susan's growing resentment over the death of her mother, but one they'd never regretted.

"I thought you'd like some flowers. Neroon suggested that you might like roses." Marcus smiles, and it's almost endearing on him. Attractive in a way that Susan never had really considered men before, especially since he wasn't thinking of her naked, or even of sex, really. Just appreciation, and a romantic attraction that didn't seem to have a connection to sex in his mind. It's refreshing.

"Thank you." Susan hesitates a moment, looking again at the deep red roses that Marcus had brought her. "Do you want to come by for dinner? You and Neroon," she adds hastily, when she catches a stray thought from Talia.

Marcus smiles brilliantly, and cheerfully accepts the offer, and promises to show up on time.

That he and Neroon stay for dessert and more is something no one mentions later, and Susan and Talia never regret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Garden of Eden](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/2052277).


	5. A Distant Pain

The pain of losing everything and everyone she knows is a distant one, pushed aside and ignored in favor of becoming the Valen that legends speak of. The great leader of the Minbari who pushed back the Shadows to Z'ha'dum, who left them dormant and defeated, if not dead. She knows they aren't dead, remembers that they aren't dead, and knows she can't wipe them out if she wants her friends to have their future, if she wants to exist at all.

She will grieve later, in the privacy of the home built for her on Minbar, in the quiet of her own mind. And even so, it will be well-tempered by the knowledge that they will go on, and will have lives full and rich (at least, she will believe that, because to do otherwise is to invite doubt, and she cannot afford doubt).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "Grief".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [A Cloak of Mourning](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/2183507).


	6. Valen

Sometimes, the tenses get tangled in her head, and Lyta - Valen, she's called in the present that is the past - can only close herself off, telling her acolytes she's meditating, to sort her thoughts. Her past is the future, and the past is her present and future and fate. She'd known that going into this task, but sometimes it still makes her thoughts twist in ways the human mind was never meant to. Nor the Minbari mind, for that matter.

Still, for all the trouble it gives her, she doesn't regret following her own instructions, nor has any qualms about writing the same. Win the war against the Shadows now, to give Delenn and the others a chance to free the galaxy of that taint later. Or otherwise solve the problem of periodic rises of the Shadows. It's no longer her problem, that distant future-past, just the past-present, and the stewardship of the Minbari that she'd never asked for.


End file.
